STOCK-TAKING AT GENEVA

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 190, 10 May 1938, Page 10

STOCK-TAKING AT GENEVA

In some respects the impending meeting of the League of Nations should be both interesting and revealing. According to report, British foreign policy is likely to be criticised by those who differ from Mr. Chamberlain in regard to his attitude to Italy, to his willingness to have the recognition of Italian sovereignty in Abyssinia discussed with a view to the liquidation of that contentious question, and to the situation in Spain. There is also the possibility that the delegation from Czechoslovakia may raise the problem of the Sudeten Germans with its accompanying threat to the political independence and territorial integrity ot that State. In regard to the German fait accompli in Austria all that appears to be left of that episode is to discuss the propriety oi the methods used by Herr Hitler. . / For all practical purposes in the sphere of international politics, however, the League will assemble in an atmosphere of futility. In his first statement on foreign policy after Mr. Eden’s resignation, Ml Chamberlain expressed the hope that it might be possible in the future to reconstruct and revive the League, but he made it perfectly clear that he placed no reliance on its present efficacy as a means of restraining aggression and vindicating the rule of law. In the light of this statement, and with four of the Powers —the' United States, Germany. Italy and Japan—out of the League, it would steerii useless tt> discuss the various questions which have kept European politics in a dangerous state of tension. It is the twilight of the League ideal.